The story of how Jessicurl came to be actually dates back to LONG before I ever made my first batch of Rockin’ Ringlets.

Until the time I was 14 I had thick yet fairly straight hair. Somewhere around the time that puberty stuck, my hair grew more and more coarse and eventually started to curl. I was mortified and at a total loss for how to deal with it. The only advice my straight haired mother could offer was “Go brush your hair!” As we all know, that’s the WORST thing to do to curly hair! My dad was more sympathetic, as he’s the one who gave me the curls, but his motto when it came to “our” hair was “bigger is better”. As a self-conscious 14 year old who didn’t want to stand out, that wasn’t very helpful either.

As my hair grew bigger and bigger, my peers grew meaner and meaner, calling me such names as Mushroom Head, Egg Head, Crusty and Helmet Head. (the latter two were due to the fact that I’d wet my hair down in between classes to keep it from puffing out.)

As I grew up, my hatred of my hair didn’t dissipate. Finally in 2002 I figured there had to be a better way, and typed “curly hair” into Google to see what the internet had to offer.

The first thing that came up was www.naturallycurly.com. I was thrilled to find that there was an entire community (or CURLmunity as they call it) of curly haired people who shared the same struggles as I did. Who knew??

I immersed myself in their Curl Talk message board and quickly made many “cyber friends” with whom I traded hair tips and horror stories. Much of what they talk about, however, are products. I would go out and buy any product that someone raved about, most of which didn’t do anything to make me like my hair better. Many of them actually made the condition of my hair worse, drying it out with alcohols and stripping it’s natural oils with harsh detergents.

Then one day I came across a very basic recipe for a hair gel made out of flax seeds. I remember thinking, “Wow, how cool would it be if I could just make my OWN hair gel? I sure would save a lot of money!”

I tried that very basic recipe, and the results were less than stellar. By this time I was inspired, however, so I tweaked the recipe, adding other natural ingredients that I had learned are good for curly hair. The results were nothing short of miraculous. I was shocked that FINALLY my hair looked like I wanted, and I had made the product on my stove!!

With much exuberance, I went back to the NaturallyCurly.com message boards and excitedly shared the recipe with my newfound friends. (The thought of going into business hadn’t crossed my mind.)

After posting my recipe I was flooded with emails from curly headed members asking if they could just buy some of the magic potion from me, as they really didn’t feel like making it. The rest, as they say, is history! Rockin’ Ringlets Styling Potion was born.

That was September of 2002. Since that time I’ve added two more styling products, three conditioners, 2 cleansers and 2 oils. The business has also since bee n moved out of my home and into our current factory in Arcata, CA where I have a WONDERFUL staff.

One of the most EXCITING things that has happened since starting Jessicurl was when I was invited to be a guest on The Rachael Ray show in October of 2006. They had me on to do hair tips, and the whole experience was SO much fun. You can read about it in my blog, here:
Did the Rachel Ray show today

Being thrust into the role of small business owner has been a crazy roller coaster, but it’s been the most wonderfully exciting thing I’ve ever done. It’s an amazing feeling to know we’re providing products that are actually GOOD for curls, made from mostly natural ingredients. I can’t imagine doing anything else.

~

In July 2008 I cut off about 14 inches of hair and donated it to Locks of Love. As a result, my hair routine was changed pretty drastically. Here is my current routine, as of Oct. 30, 2008.

I wash it every 2-3 days with either Gentle Lather Shampoo or Hair Cleansing Cream. To wash, I take a puddle whichever cleanser I’m using, rub my hands together and smooth it over my hair like I’m putting it in a ponytail. I then massage my scalp all over to produce a lather, and finger comb that lather through the length of my hair. This gets it clean without causing tangles.

After rinsing really well I like to do a rinse with honey water. It makes the hair really soft and helps the curls bounce up and reduce frizz. It also seems to fade my hair color, so I try to limit it to once or twice a week. Or, I do it more often and just accept that it’s going to fade my color to a lighter red. But by then it’s usually time to color again anyway, so it all works out.

I put about 2 tablespoons of honey in a big cup, fill it with water and slowly pour it over my hair. I apply Too Shea after that and leave that in while I do all the other shower things.

I rinse that out standing upright then flip my head over and rinse upside down. This seems to really help with volume at the roots as well as curl formation.

While my hair is still soaking wet I put a pea sized drop of Aloeba Daily Conditioner, a puddle of Rockin’ Ringlets and a smaller puddle of Confident Coils into my palm, rub my hands together, and rake that through my hair 5-6 times. I then scrunch (with my head still upside down) about 5 times with my hands and then another 5 or so times with the microfiber towel. I scrunch in another palm full of RR/CCSS, and at the very end scrunch in a pea sized drop of Oil Blend For Softer Hair for extra softness and shine.

I then plunk my curls down into a microfiber towel and leave it on for about 10 minutes. This has allowed me to reduce the time I spend blow-drying. It’s basically like scrunching your hair for the length of time you have it on your head. Unlike when my hair was longer, if I leave the towel on for too long, I find it ends up frizzy, so I try to limit it to 10 minutes. When it was longer, I’d leave it on for 25-30 minutes. You can see a demonstration video of this technique here: